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It's rare when we at BSAlert call attention to a corporate ad campaign on a positive note, but the latest commercial from the most unlikely of sources, Burger King, actually tugs on the heartstrings as well as the mind of consumers in a very creative way, and it's worth sharing...

It's also amusing to note that this is from the same company that several years ago launched an ad campaign that stated, "un-friend 10 people on Facebook and get a free whopper" at which point Burger King contacted each of the un-friended friends letting them know their friendship wasn't stronger than a free Whopper... so while we're not apt to completely forgive Burger King, we can appreciate their new turn... for now.

Bill Maher on the myth of the "lesser of two evils" which tends to turn off liberal voters, especially those who were butthurt that Bernie did not get the nomination, and instead stayed home instead of voting for the Democratic nominee. We all have reaped what they sowed, and Bill has something to say about it...

We here at BSAlert want to wish one of the very highest-quality human beings on the planet great fortune on their continued journey. We are very saddened to see Jon depart from the Daily Show and hope he will still be a regular fixture in media and continue to bless us with his unique take on society.

Here is Jon Stewart's farewell message, one which we especially appreciate, on the importance of identifying and dealing with.... Bullshit!

It's no secret I like Reddit. I myself run a few popular subreddits. But like many, it's impossible to have a love-love relationship with this site. For every cool section, there's another one that makes your skin crawl. For every person you can relate to, there's eighteen dozen who appear to be Tourettes-infected-6-year-olds.

We could talk for days about the pros/cons of their shallow and binary up/down-vote system, and how it seems to ultimately pander to a mean demographic that nobody wants to own, but at the same time, the largely "hands off"-style of allowing anyone with the slightest inclination to create their own sub-community, has allows the place to prosper wildly.

And every time I come across something odd, I think it can't be topped. I continue to prove myself wrong. Here is a list of some of my "most bizarre" subreddits recently discovered...

Phillip Perea, a former employee of a Fox station in Texas shot and killed himself outside the front doors of the News Corporation building shortly before 9 a.m. Monday. In the wake of the suicide, he left a huge series of well-produced video sequences outlining his grievances with Fox News. In the epic series, one has to wonder WTF?

I'm not one to jump on the meme bandwagon, but I'd like to see this idea propagate. When it all comes down to it, ISIS/ISIL is not a threat to America any more than the mythological "WMDs" Saddam Hussein supposedly had. Let's make sure our fellow Americans are reminded of the mistakes of the past so we're not doomed to repeat them.

If you have a cool graphic that also illustrates this point, let us know and we'll feature it here.

This past Sunday evening former NSA contractor Edward Snowden sat down for an interview with German television network ARD. The interview has been intentionally blocked from the US public, with virtually no major broadcast news outlets covering this story. In addition, the video has been taken down almost immediately every time it’s posted on YouTube.

In contrast, this was treated as a major political event in both print and broadcast media, in Germany, and across much of the world. In the interview, Mr. Snowden lays out a succinct case as to how these domestic surveillance programs undermine and erode human rights and democratic freedom.

There are a number of new agey articles floating around the facebooks and internets promoting a very old concept called, "biocentrism", that existence is all subjective and the product of our own minds.

A seemingly-respectable medical doctor has recently published a book and is now on a big press-push, hyping this notion that consciousness lives on after death of the physical body. Let's take a look at how "sciencey" this "doctor" actually is...

This week’s government shutdown has consequences for all of us, costing an estimated $300 million each day that the government is closed for business. Many Americans have voiced their frustrations with the fallout from the shutdown on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using the hash tag #DearCongress. Here, Bill Moyers shares his own frustrations, admonishing the Republican Party for holding the country hostage via an irrational “ransom list” of demands — while sabotaging democracy in the process. “When the President refused to buckle to this extortion, they threw their tantrum,” Bill says. ”Like the die-hards of the racist South a century and a half ago, who would destroy the union before giving up their slaves, so would these people burn down the place, sink the ship.” He goes on to tell us where the “reckless ambition” of the Republicans could lead us.

Daniel Somers was a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was part of Task Force Lightning, an intelligence unit. In 2004-2005, he was mainly assigned to a Tactical Human-Intelligence Team (THT) in Baghdad, Iraq, where he ran more than 400 combat missions as a machine gunner in the turret of a Humvee, interviewed countless Iraqis ranging from concerned citizens to community leaders and and government officials, and interrogated dozens of insurgents and terrorist suspects. In 2006-2007, Daniel worked with Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) through his former unit in Mosul where he ran the Northern Iraq Intelligence Center. His official role was as a senior analyst for the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and part of Turkey). Daniel suffered greatly from PTSD and had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and several other war-related conditions. On June 10, 2013, Daniel wrote the following letter to his family before taking his life. Daniel was 30 years old. His wife and family have given permission to publish it.

Pundits from both sides of the aisle have lauded Mitt Romney’s strong debate performance, praising his preparedness and ability to challenge President Obama’s policies and accomplishments. But Romney only accomplished this goal by repeatedly misleading viewers. He spoke for 38 minutes of the 90 minute debate and told at least 27 myths:

What is the connection between an American independent filmmaker and a Ugandan guerrilla group leader? See the short film he made to explain, and watch one guy's attempt to, in no uncertain terms, change the course of human history... which some say is little more than a viral advertisement for a shady charity that favors one dictatorship over another?

And then what happens when the Internet proper does due-diligence on the filmmakers and fact-checks what's really going on in Africa? Is there just one bad guy, or a bunch, including several administrations using African warlords as a way to whip up military intervention to secure oil reserves?

Once again, it's that time of the year, where various wingnutty pundits pronounce the evils of a secular "war on Christmas" and how the fabric of their way of life is under constant threat because someone has the audacity to say "holiday" instead of "christmas." Jon Stewart explores this conflict, and investigates what the pilgrims and America's founding founding fathers had to say about it.

In the wake of the Occupy Wall Street movements and the overhwhelming backlash against the "corportization of America" and the corruption of its political process, there may be some signs of actual change.

Boulder, Colorado adopted a resolution by a three-to-one margin, calling for the U.S. Congress to amend the U.S. Constitution to say that corporations are not people and money is not speech, and 6 Senators introduced a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. Have corporations overplayed their hand - is the backlash now underway?

Since Sept 17th, there's been a peaceful demonstration, "occupation" of Wall Street in New York City by people who are fed up with Corporate America running the country and society into the ground. While the mainstream media continues to ignore the issue, it's becoming viral online in a bit way. Watch the protests live online!

Egyptian protester Tamer Shaaban has created a video that's going viral online as fast as it's getting flagged and removed. Check out this poignant illustration of what happens when the divide between the government and the people becomes too wide to handle...

Princeton Graduate student, Bill Zeller's life ended this week, by his own doing. But what marks his departure is probably the most cogent, expressful and poignant suicide note ever written. He wants to make sure this note does not disappear from cyberspace so we've posted it here...

The Dragon's Den is an interesting tv show that originally started in the UK. The show is based on the premise that would-be entrepeneurs pitch products and services to the "dragons" - a group of successful businessmen. Sometimes the ideas are good, most of the time they're bad, but almost every time, the inventor is sure they've found "the most awesome product ever!" In one recent case, a guy hawking "miracle cure water", the same kind of stuff you'll see routinely advertised on talk radio, comes up against the Dragons... Let's watch..

As Comcast seeks Congressional approval for their merger with NBC, Senator Al Franken notes that out of one side of Comcastcast's mouth they claim the FCC will keep them from abusing their almost monopolist status, and out of the other, their lawyers are claiming the FCC has no jurisdiction in enforcing their decisions.

It's refreshing to see a politician finally act appropriately when he's being blatantly lied to. And especially interesting to see the CEO of NBC, Al Franken's old boss, cow tow to him now that he's a senator.

Christopher Hitchens tackles an array of eclectic questions solicited from Internet users of the site Reddit. As a result you get some provocative and insightful questions and answers like what you won't see on TV.

On Thursday, Sam Pullen was arrested at the Los Angeles offices of the insurance giant Blue Cross. He refused to give his information to police and vowed to remain in prison until Blue Cross agreed to hear demands that it stop denying doctor-recommended medical treatment to seriously ill patients. Despite his resistance, Pullen was finally ordered released from jail on Monday, against his will.

When you think the left has no balls, take a look at this video of a single brave man who had the guts to show up at one of Glenn Beck's coalition of crazy people holding a sign that says, "Public Option Now!"

After being attacked and spit upon, he eventually completes his march through the protest with the help of several armed policemen. It's pretty amazing to watch the amount of hatred and vitriol spewed at this guy who is merely expressing an opinion.

It's called, "Reputation Management" or "Word of Mouth Marketing." Their web site says, "WOMMA members represent the best and brightest minds of the business world, and they have come together to build a prosperous word of mouth marketing industry based on best practices, measurable ROI, and ethical leadership. "

What do they really do? These paid shills roam across the Internet planting fake stories, engage in messageboard posting and up and downvote things based on the needs of their corporate clientele. Currently a main series of benefactors are putting them on a quest to discredit anyone and anything good about democrats and the Obama regime online.

What happens when your April Fool's day prank is taken seriously by a New York television news agency? Well, in an effort to avoid embarrassment, WPIX CW11, owned by Tribune Entertainment, apparently filed a DMCA complaint against the group, "Improv Everywhere" and claimed copyright infringement on their reporting and re-broadcasting of Improv Everywhere's April Fool's gag, that they thought was real. Once again, a news agency does absolutely no fact-checking, and when caught with their pants down tries to pretend the debacle never happened. Luckily someone other than YouTube is hosting the embarrassing video.

A fun viral video series floating around the net is a show we like called, "Bogosity". We interviewed producer Shane Killian for a future podcast and thought we might introduce you to this neat show...

The Krewe of Orpheus reneigned on their invitation to have Carlos Mencia reign as celebrity grand marshall in their 2009 Mardi Gras parade, when, within 24 hours of making the announcement they were made aware of the racist and obnoxious jokes he made about Katrina survivors in 2005, where among other things he said, "I'm glad Hurricane Katrina happened. It taught us an important lesson: black people can't swim."

Remember Ben Stein? The Clear Eyes pitchman and the goofy teacher from Ferris Buehler? No, what we really mean is the star of the ridiculous anti-evolution crockumentary, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed". Well, some brainiac at the University of Vermont thought it would be a good idea to invite him to give a commencement speech. Apparently the students and the rest of the academic community, who didn't take too kindly to Stein's movie suggesting higher education was a fraud and evolution was tantamount to the holocaust, took offense..

A clever group has put together a short animated film called, "Instruction Manual For Life", and created a unique metaphor for peoples' ideology and sense of tolerance. Check out this insightful film..

For our tenth show, we eschewed a single topic and decided to launch a new series of featured segments where we talk about what's on our mind. We cover everything from the Madhoff ponzi scheme to bizzarro Bush's commencement speech, Nigerian scams, the United Auto Workers union and even field a visit from the grammar nazis!

Nebraska's safe haven law was intended to allow parents to hand over an infant anonymously to a hospital without being prosecuted, presumably as a way to be "pro life" and discourage abortions.

Unfortunately things didn't work out the way lawmakers planned. Of the 34 children who have been dropped off at hospitals, officials said, not one has been an infant.

All but six have been older than 10, according to a Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services analysis. Now lawmakers are rushing to change the law while parents are rushing to Nebraska to drop their kids off before the law changes.

After spending more than $20 Million to lobby for the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which retroactively banned gay marriage and nullified 20,000 existing marriages, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as "The Mormons" is catching quite a lot of backlash, from campaigns to revoke the church's tax-exempt status to calls to boycott the entire state of Utah!

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